Lunar satellite Kaguya takes last spin
by Greg on Jun.09, 2009, under Science Life
“On June 10th at 18:30 Universal Time the Japanese lunar orbiter Kaguya (formerly named Selene) will end its two years of science with a final impact experiment. The location of the impact is very near the southeast limb, close to 80ºE, 63ºS. This area will be in shadow as the Moon has just passed full, but easy to find just beyond the terminator south of [the crater] Janssen. Visual observations and video monitoring may be rewarded with a bright flash or (possibly) a cloud of ejecta that rises into sunlight as the large spacecraft rams into the surface at 6000 km/hr. . . .
Here are two wonderful videos of just a fraction of what the satellite has done for lunar imaging. The linked story has additional images.
:kaguya, moon, space
-
Science, media, art, movies, politics, and what else I find interesting tweeting and reading on the internet. And ITP.
Nasa's Image of the Day
Large X-class Flare Erupts on the Sun
On Jan. 27, 2012, a large X-class flare erupted from an active region near the solar west limb. X-class flares are the most powerful of all solar events. Seen here is an image of the flare captured by the X-ray telescope on Hinode. This image shows an emission from plasma heated to greater than eight million degrees during the energy release process of the flare. Image Credit: JAXA/Hinode
Read More
